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Labor Day rings true at Market Basket

Arthur T. Demoulas arrives at Market Basket HQ in Tewksbury then speaks to fellow workers and the press before heading into the offices getting back to work again . SUN/ David H. Brow (David H. Brow)

This Labor Day, Market Basket workers have far more to celebrate than simply a holiday weekend to unofficially close out the summer.

The holiday, which the Department of Labor calls "a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of our country," rings especially true this year, less than a week after an uprising of thousands of Market Basket workers put so much pressure on the company that it nearly had no other choice than to sell the company to ousted CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.

Market Basket workers overcame what seemed to be steep odds. The board of directors that fired Demoulas in June was practically forced two months later to approve a sale of the company to him.

Workers stayed united while front-office workers went without paychecks and when hours were eliminated for nearly all part-time workers, who make up the bulk of store staffing. They never asked for better wages or workplace conditions, simply the return of the boss they loved working for, who treated them well and remembered their names.

The victory by Market Basket's 25,000 workers was called by business experts and analysts something that other businesses must watch and learn from, even if the circumstances that led to success by Market Basket workers might not be so easily replicated elsewhere.

But it was certainly a win for labor, they said.

"In a sense that collective action brought about a desired change, absolutely," said John Springer, an associate editor with Supermarket News.

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Some of the Market Basket managers who were fired in July for their role in the employee walkout and boycott will participate in the Bread and Roses ceremony in Lawrence today to mark the famous strike a century ago.

Thomas Kochan, an MIT business professor, wrote in a column for Fortune magazine's website that said the Market Basket workers' victory is at least the biggest labor story of the year.

He also predicted the Market Basket story would "go down in both business and labor history as a pivotal, perhaps historic event."

The most vocal Market Basket protesters knew that. Some mentioned how unusual their plan was, and how any professional adviser probably wouldn't recommend it, and the employee website We Are Market Basket addressed that aspect in a posting the day the employee walkout began in July.

"What we are doing is unprecedented so therefore we have no blueprint to follow or business-school lesson to refer to," the website said. "Some may think we are naive, and maybe we are. Perhaps that naiveté works in our favor as it allows us to believe that what we are doing is not only right but also achievable.

"We hope to become the precedent, the blueprint and the business-school lesson," it added.

Business observers agreed the boycott had set a precedent after the company was sold to Demoulas last week.

The lesson from Market Basket, UMass Lowell business professor Scott Latham said, is that labor is often closer to the customer than management is, and it deserves a seat at the table.

"In the wake of this, as a strategy professor, in my class now, I will ask managers and executives, 'Would your employees fight for you if you were dismissed?'" Latham said. "If the answer is no, then it's time to look in the mirror."

Paul Pustorino, a business professor at Suffolk University, called it more than simply a victory.

"It can demonstrate to workers across the country ... if you really believe in something and you can unite yourself, even in a nonunionized forum, you can get management's attention," he said.

Area unions did reach out to Market Basket workers this summer to offer help.

Boston Teamsters 25, with more than 11,000 members, said a few days after the walkout and boycott began that it would give free legal assistance and advice to any Market Basket worker. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union later created what it called a solidarity fund to help Market Basket workers who were out of work.

The UFCW also condemned Market Basket's management at the time for threatening to fire workers who walked out on the job, and praised workers as a "shining example of the power workers wield when they stand together and act collectively."

Union grocery workers from competitors like Stop & Shop and Shaw's also participated in the Market Basket rallies, the UFCW said.

Market Basket workers never embraced unions during their fight this summer. They never formed a union because they never needed one, We Are Market Basket said.

"We are a company that has never had a reason for a union because unions, in almost all cases, are formed to protect workers from management taking advantage of them," the site said earlier this year, months before the boycott.

Tom Trainor, one of the most outspoken voices during the fight to get Demoulas back, said he wouldn't want Market Basket to have a union because as a manager, he wouldn't have been able to get involved in the employee action. Labor laws that pit management against rank-and-file workers should be updated, he said.

"I'm not anti-union," Trainor said. "I just don't see how a union could have made us stronger than we already are."

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